-Both Don Brennan and Nichols write about Mika Zibanejad now that he’s scored his first goal in the AHL. Zibanejad talked about the goal:
Obviously, it’s a big relief at the moment. It was good for my confidence to know that I can score, I can see the puck go in. I’m going to just keep working, and make sure I’m there, where everything happens, in front of the net. Make sure I battle and work hard every day, like I’m trying to do. It was fun. We have two speedsters on the wings [Petersson and Hoffman], it’s perfect for me, just to give it to them and make sure I skate in the middle. They’re both really good skaters, so (we) use that advantage against opponents. It’s a bit new, the whole game, the whole system outside of the rink and on the ice. I feel like I’m getting used to it more and more, and I feel like I just have to work for the confidence to come back. Faceoffs have actually been really good this year, compared to last year in the (Swedish) Elite League. So I’m really happy with that. Small details … you try as well as you can. Even though you don’t score or get the assist and stuff, you just try to work hard every day. It’s a bit different maybe to play wing here than at home, where you get more space and it’s a bigger ice surface. Maybe you get to work more in the D-zone as a centre than compared to a winger, but I think it’s good to have an opportunity to play different positions.
Nichols point is simply that fans are overly eager to get statistical results from prospects and that teenage prospects like Zibanejad take time to develop (which is just common sense).
-Here’s the weekly prospect update (for players with more than 10 games played I’ve indicated where they are in scoring; for blueliners they are compared to other defensemen on the team):
CHL
Cody Ceci (OHL Ottawa) 23-6-17-23 (1st)
Matt Puempel (OHL Kitchener) 23-17-5-22 (1st)
Stefan Noesen (OHL Plymouth) 21-14-8-22 (1st)
Jordan Fransoo (WHL Victoria) 17-2-4-6 (3rd)
Jakub Culek (QMJHL Cape Breton) 3-1-1-2 (11th)
Jarrod Maidens (OHL Owen Sound) (injured)
Chris Driedger (WHL Calgary) 11-3-2 2.35 .919
Francois Brassard (QMJHL Quebec) 13-5-0 2.63 .904
Allsvenskan (Swe)
Mikael Wikstrand (Mora) 22-9-6-15 (1st)
KHL
Nikita Filatov (Salavat) 25-5-9-14 (2nd)
NCAA
Ryan Dzingel (Ohio) – 10-3-5-8 (1st)
Max McCormick (Ohio) – 10-3-4-7 (2nd)
Jeff Costello (Notre Dame) – 8-3-3-6
Bryce Aneloski (Nebraska-Omaha) – 10-1-5-6 (3rd)
Michael Sdao (Princeton) – 6-2-3-5
Tim Boyle (Union) – 4-0-1-1
USHL
Robbie Baillargeon (Indiana) – 17-4-8-12 (3rd)
–Central Scouting has released their current rankings for the 2013 draft. CS divides between goalies and skaters, North American and European, and in this list each individual league (which makes it far too bifurcated for me to copy it here).
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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[…] Scouting has released their mid-season draft rankings update (here’s the previous ranking). CS divides between goalies and skaters, North American and European, and in this list […]